Home Gardeninff. 141 



threw a little earth over the lumps, and then planted the vines in the usual way. 

 The result has been wonderful ; the vines, which were not half an inch thick when 

 planted three years ago, are now two inches and more in diameter, and bear finely. 

 The grapes are also freer from disease. Other vines, not so treated, are much smaller 

 and produce less, the fruit being also more liable to disease. To try the effect of 

 this plaster, in planting two American black walnuts, we put the plaster to the one 

 and not to the other. The former grew twice as fast as the other. Last year we 

 dug about the roots of the one to which no plaster was put, and we threw in seven or 

 eight large lumps of plaster among the roots; the trees are now both of the same 

 size, and though only four years old, are sixteen to seventeen feet high." 



Killiny Trees tvith Salt. 



Dr. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College, speaking of how salt is taken 

 up in the circulation of trees, relates a case of its fatal effects that came under 

 his own observation. On the college grounds formerly grew a fine vigorous specimen 

 of common sassafras {Sassafras officinale), apparently in perfect health. A quantity 

 of strong brine was inadvertently thrown beneath this tree, forming a stagnant pool 

 in its immediate vicinity. In a very short time the tree began to manifest signs of 

 decreasing vitality. The salt was absorbed unchanged in such immense quantities 

 that, entering the circulation, it effloresced upon the surface of the leaf, in white 

 crystalline deposits, after which the tree grew rapidly feebler and died. 



Ji'fitit Trees as Ornaments. 



Why can we not introduce them more freely on our lawns for ornamental purposes ? 

 A writer in the l^n^ish Journal of Horticulture thinks that there are few objects 

 more beautiful and interesting during the spring or early summer months, than our 

 common cultivated fruit trees, and there really does not appear to be any good reason 

 why the fruit garden should not constitute a necessary portion of the policy or pleas- 

 ure grounds of every country mansion. What can be more beautiful than the apple 

 tree, the pear the plum, and the cherry tree, in full flower? And they are in fact 

 exceedingly interesting objects at all seasons. But it rarely happens that they are 

 placed in a position where their beauty can be appreciated and enjoyed. They are 

 too frequently found in the vegetable garden, where they are entirely out of place, 

 unless it be in the form of espaliers or cordons ; or they may possibly be found in a 

 somewhat neglected and out-of-the-way locality known as the orchard. 



But as an advance or improvement upon this state of things, might not these useful 

 and ornamental trees be cultivated with more pleasure, and at least equal profit, in 

 a tastefully designed garden or compartment by themselves, and forming at the same 

 time an essential part of the pleasure grounds? Clumps or groups of varied forms 

 and dimensions could be formed of pyramidal or otherwise trained apple, pear, plum, 

 and cherry trees, etc., which might be margined by low slender cordons of their re- 

 spective kinds ; while single standard trees of various sorts might, in suitable situa- 

 tions, be allowed to assume their natural habits and dimensions, the whole area to be 

 traversed by winding and comfortable walks, to afford every facility for the examina- 

 tion and enjoyment of the beauty of the various fruits in all stages of their develop- 

 ment. 



